Juan Yague

Juan Yague y Blanco (19 November 1891-29 October 1952) was a Captain-General in the Spanish Legion who fought in the Spanish Civil War on the side of Nationalist Spain. He was nicknamed the "Butcher of Badajoz" for his role in executing thousands of republicans in the hospital of Badajoz.

Biography
Juan Yague y Blanco was born on 19 November 1891 in San Leonardo de Yague, and Yague served alongside Francisco Franco in the Spanish Legion during the Rif War in Morocco. In 1932, he became a Lieutenant-Colonel, and in 1934 he put down a workers' uprising in Asturias with Moroccan regulars. Yague was an early supporter of the Falange and Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, and he took part in the planned coup against the Frente Popular government in 1936. His legionnaires rebelled in Ceuta and took Badajoz on 14 August 1936 in one of the first major victories for Nationalist Spain, and he was responsible for massacring thousands of Republicans, including wounded Republican troops in the hospital of Badajoz, earning him the nickname "The Butcher of Badajoz". The Badajoz Massacre killed 10% of the population of the city, but he claimed that he had to kill them; otherwise, he could either bring the prisoners as a column alongside his Nationalist army and move against the clock, or he could leave them in Badajoz so that they could return the city to communism. He played a leading role in the victory at the 1938 Battle of the Ebro, and he was the only Nationalist leader that Nazi Germany's Condor Legion respected, as he never showed any signs of fear in battle. He became Minister of the Spanish Air Force of Nationalist Spain in 1939, and he died in 1952.